Apparently it's a terrible love and he's walking with spiders. Nice sound and orchestration, but lots of distortion and reverb with weak vocals and lyrics. It is all a bit bleak. Is it possible that all great rock music from the aughts is supposed to make you feel suicidal? That's a depressing thought- oh my, is that meta.
I go back to that thought about people mistaking "sad" music for "beautiful" music. Not that High Violet is bad, but it doesn't really reach the kind of heights that justify "must hear before you die". It's also a shame when albums are one sad song after another as if there's no other emotion in the artist's music. Great albums need more than just one emotion, and this album desperately needs something more than bleakness.
Sample lyric: "You and your sister living in Lemonworld. Du-du-du-du-du-du-du." Maybe to a depressed person that means something. The really bitter part of me wants to say that the artists writing this emo-rock are hoping beyond hope that one of their songs will get used in the next big mediocre indie romantic movie that's hyped beyond measure. Since I don't watch those movies I can't think of an example. What I can think of is that really blah Jeff Buckley "Hallelujah" cover which became so huge it was used on every TV show at some point between 2007 and 2010. Of course by then Jeff Buckley was long since dead. The lesson? Don't go swimming with your boots on. Oh jeez, I seem to have wandered off course.
OK, to give credit where due, the penultimate tune "England" has a much more triumphant feeling, and leads me to believe The National might not have committed ritual suicide. Too little too late to avoid a 2 star rating.
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